Two Sided Coin
by Adalia Glenys
Summary: Extremely AU. Myotismon has lived in the Digital World for centuries of its time. What if Ken wasn't the first to fall prey to his manipulation-and what if the Vampire took a more direct approach? First fanfic, so feel free to rip it apart. (seriously)
1. Chapter 1

Two-Sided Coin  
  
"Excuse me," I said to the student worker in the college's post office. "I got a notice in my box that there's a package for me, is that right?"  
"What's your box number?" she asked, fishing a clipboard out of the papers on her desk.  
"Box 3977."  
"Okay. Sign that while I get it for you, all right? God, it's huge—d'you need somebody to help you with that?"  
"I can probably manage. Oh, great!" I exclaimed, catching sight of the label. "I thought it got lost in the mail, or stolen."  
"What is it?" the student worker asked. "Hang on; I'm gonna have to take it around to the main door. It won't fit through the window."  
"I got incredibly lucky and won this stuff," I said, "It's supposed to be some kind of virtual reality equipment for Internet games. It's probably really primitive to be a contest prize, but it comes with a total of 100 free hours on any of the company's VR games."  
"What happens after 100 hours?"  
"Then I have to subscribe to anything I want to keep playing. Oh, that's not too heavy, I can definitely handle that. Thanks!"  
The box wasn't heavy, but it was a really awkward size, and I had a mini-adventure getting it across campus and into my dorm. Fortunately, as a senior I've learned the magic of pulling handles and turning knobs without using my hands. Eventually, I got the fool thing up to the third floor of the girl's dormitory and into my room.  
'I hope this stuff is compatible with my machine,' I thought as I cut the box open and began to unpack. 'Headset, things like weird boots; what the heck are these?' I referred to the manual. 'Oh, I see. Those clip things go on the fingers and the oval thing goes around the hand...'  
I skimmed through the manual while absently arranging the parts of the system on my desk. Apart from the usual assembly and accessing instructions there wasn't much to it, though it did include some safety tips on how not to run into furniture while playing the games. I began to set up the system—headset in the monitor, microphone, and speaker ports, hands, torso, and feet connected through one line into the mouse port—when I noticed the other piece of hardware. A bit larger than a cell phone, it had a small screen and several buttons; altogether, it looked like a hand- held video game.   
I didn't remember unpacking that. Maybe it was just stuck to the back of one of the boots. I picked it up and tapped a few buttons, but nothing happened. Turning it over, I searched for a place to install batteries, but the thing was seamless apart from one deep groove that reminded me of a credit card scanner. Well, whatever it was, it didn't work. I set it down, switched on the computer and began to strap myself into the VR system. The desktop that normally would appear on the monitor flashed on the visor over my eyes. With my right hand I moved the mouse pointer to the Internet icon and selected it with a button on my palm. In that instant, the game-like device on my desk activated. I glanced under the edge of the headset's eyepiece and picked up the little beeping machine. There was a tremendous flash of white light, and when my vision cleared I could no longer see my dorm or any of the VR equipment except for the little game. Instead, I sat on a solitary stone, surrounded by a field of tall grass and, in the distance, a thick forest.   
How weird. How incredibly _real_. A breeze rustled through the plants around me, and not only could I hear it, but I could feel it, cool against my face, carrying with it the scent of flowers and distant pines. I ran my hand over the surface of the granite boulder upon which I sat, startled at the rough, chilly texture. But—hadn't I been sitting on a plain wooden chair? What kind of technology could affect my sense of touch?   
"Hi!" squeaked a cheerful little voice.   
"Um...hello?" I said, hesitantly scanning the area for a sight of the speaker.  
"Down here," the amused voice came from beside my left foot. I looked down and saw a brown- and cream-colored creature, almost hidden in the grass. It was about the size of a Pekingese, and at first I thought it was some kind of dog. Then it jumped up onto the stone, and I saw with surprise that it had ears shaped like little wings.   
"What are you?" I blurted. For an instant I regretted my lack of tact, but then I figured that a creature in a computer game, however advanced that game might be, probably wouldn't take offense.   
The creature answered cheerily, "I'm a digimon. You can call me Patamon. Would you like to be my tamer?"   
"You look pretty damn tame to me already," I replied, wondering what the weird little thing was talking about. "What d'you mean, 'tamer,' anyway?"   
"A partner," Patamon explained, looking surprised by the question. "I protect you and you help me get stronger."   
'Oh, so it's that kind of game,' I thought. 'You start out with a weak little creature that fights on your behalf and gets stronger as you progress.'   
"Okay, why not," I said aloud. The screen on the game device flashed, then a picture of Patamon appeared, followed by some brief information about it.   
"Yay!" Patamon squealed, flapping its ears—or wings, I wasn't sure which. I couldn't help smiling.   
"My name's Elizabeth. So, how do we start?" I asked, rising. Then I caught sight of my wristwatch. "Oh, no. I've got to cut this short; it's almost time for choir."   
Patamon's batwing-ears drooped. "You have to leave already? Will you come back soon?"   
"Probably tomorrow," I said. "My last class ends at noon on Wednesdays, so I should have more time." As I glanced around, wondering how to exit the program, I found a computer monitor sitting in the grass behind me, its screen tilted upward and facing the stone. "I guess this is the way out," I said, leaning forward to touch it.   
"Bye," Patamon called sadly. As my fingers met the screen, I was again blinded by a burst of light. Then I found myself sitting at my desk once more, again wearing the VR equipment and still clutching the now-active device.  
-----------   
I thought about that strange game through the evening and all the next morning. Though I scoured the manufacturer's list, none of the games described seemed to match the one I'd found. Before I tried it again, I decided to make a trip to the nearest mall and look for more information about it.  
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	2. Chapter 2

"Can I help you find something, ma'am?" asked the clerk in the electronic games shop.  
"Yeah, I'm looking for information about an RPG that involves something called digimon," I replied.  
"'Digimon,'" the clerk echoed. "I'm not familiar with that...do you have any idea how old a game it is?"  
"Not exactly, but it must be fairly new. I just accessed it last night, and it's the most incredibly real virtual reality game I can imagine."  
"Well, let's look it up, then," he suggested, leading me to a computer terminal at the register. "Digimon," he repeated, typing it in. "There's nothing about it in anything we stock," he reported after a pause, "and nothing about it in our suppliers' catalogues either. I can't go online from here except to place orders, but you might try running a search at home. I'm sorry, ma'am, but I can't think where else you could find out what digimon might be."  
"Digimon is a card game," said a childish voice. A young boy was standing near the counter, holding several game magazines. "You can get it at the trading card shop by the bookstore."  
"Oh, thanks," I said. "And thank you, too," I added to the clerk.  
"So, do you know how this game works?" I asked the child.  
He shook his head. "I just saw the packs the other day. I think you have to have some kind of electronic thing to play it, though, 'cause they had those, too."  
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The 'electronic things' didn't look much like the device that came with the equipment. I bought a starter pack of the digimon cards, and yes, they did have a magnetic strip along one side for an electronic reader. I didn't buy one of those, however, figuring the one I had was probably all I'd need.  
Back in my room, I set up the VR equipment, took the cards and reader in hand, and opened an Internet window. Instantly, I found myself back on the boulder in the sea of grass. I looked around for Patamon, but no one was in sight. Hmm. Well, as tall as the plants were, the little thing might have gotten lost. I decided to have a look around the edge of the forest while I waited for it to show up.  
The grass clung to my socks and felt unpleasantly prickly against my bare legs. I wished for a moment that I'd worn longer pants. There might be insects...I laughed at myself. How stupid--but this game world was so vivid I had trouble remembering it wasn't real. I could smell the sap from the stems I broke in passing, feel the tickling of the softer blades on my calves. Ahead of me, a single mountain reached toward the sky, ringed with storm clouds like a ghostly coronet. A high wind blew from that direction, carrying the scent of rain and the echoes of distant thunder.  
"Greetings, Digidestined," came a voice—masculine, adult—decidedly not Patamon's, from beyond the tree line. A human figure stepped out of the forest ahead of me. He wore a blue suit trimmed with yellow, mostly in the form of stylized bats, and a black cape lined with red. A scarlet domino-style mask hid most of his pallid face. Combined with his elongated canines, he gave the rather amusing, if unnerving, impression of a colorblind vampire.  
In spite of myself, I took a step back as he approached. "'Digidestined,'" I repeated, reminding myself how silly it was to be frightened. "Is that what you call the players of this game?"  
Was it my imagination, or did he seem a bit startled at the question?  
"Why...yes; yes, any player who has claimed a partner is a Digidestined," he replied smoothly.  
"And you are...?"  
"Forgive me," he executed an elegant bow that was altogether at odds with his absurd costume. "My name is Myotismon. Think of me as the Help Function personified. My duty is to answer players' questions and provide information so they can evoke the optimum performance from their digimon."  
"So you give advice, then?"  
"Precisely," he grinned, stepping closer. I couldn't help drawing back a little further.  
"Now, there's no need to feel intimidated," he chuckled. "I am here to help you. The first thing you will need are modify cards—ah, I see you already have those."  
Surprised, I glanced away from Myotismon, toward the cards, forgotten until now, in my hand. But—the cards were real objects; how had they become part of the game's reality?  
Myotismon's hands clasped mine at that moment, distracting me from my wonderings. Even though I knew it was only a game, being near him made my skin crawl. I pulled away, feeling a revulsion I couldn't explain. Myotismon only smiled—was that amusement? Surely not. He was a digital image, nothing else. I forced myself to move nearer again.  
In order to progress in this game, your Digimon must defeat others. You help him to do so by scanning the appropriate modify card for the occasion through your digivice—the device you hold there. The cards will temporarily alter your partner, enabling him to better combat his opponents. Your objective is to destroy as many other digimon as possible, weak or strong. The more digimon you destroy, the more powerful your own digimon will become."  
"Will I meet other Digidestined in this game?"  
"Perhaps. If you do, you must attempt to destroy their digimon as well. Otherwise they will destroy yours; and believe me; once you've learned to enjoy this game you'll want to se it to completion without having to start over.   
"I should warn you though: many players develop the unfortunate delusion that their partners are really alive, and they will go to great lengths to prevent the digimon's destruction.   
"I believe your partner is coming," Myotismon remarked, turning to leave. "I should let you proceed with the game. It might be best if you don't mention me to him; digimon are programmed to be possessive about their tamers, and I am, after all, a digital being." He walked back through the trees, dissolving into mist as he went.   
"Hang on!" I called. "How do I get hold of you if I need help?" A small bat-like creature darted through the trees and came to rest, upside- down, on a limb. "My bats are everywhere," Myotismon's voice came floating from an indeterminable direction. "If you need to contact me, inform one of them and I will come to you, if possible."   
"Hurray! You're back!" Patamon's voice called. As I turned in his direction, the digimon slammed into my chest like a living basketball. "I thought you said 'noon,' but I don't care! You came back, and that's what's important!"   
"Missed me, did you?" I inquired teasingly.   
"Yeah!" Patamon agreed. "So, what d'you want to do? Huh?"   
"I found out some things about digimon today," I said. "That's why I was late."   
"That's okay!" Patamon interrupted, to my annoyance.   
"_So_," I continued, "let's start making you stronger." 


End file.
